This site is dedicated to providing moderate-right opinions, and information and articles that counter some of the nonsense being inculcated in our young people by public schools and by many colleges and universities. It rejects multiculturalism, embraces the melting pot and celebrates the idea of America. *Vi er all Dansk nu.*

Saturday, December 01, 2007

A Compassionate View of Illegal Immigration?

All my life I have prided myself as a reasonable and compassionate person - and someone with sympathy for the plight of immigrants. That has all gone out the window in recent years, as the number of illegals and the crimes they commit has become an obscenity, compounded by the obvious attempts by illegals to make over the United States into some kind of Mexican tributary, where Spanish is the "official" language, and the tax receipts from citizens support their lifestyle.

I have lost all sense of compassion and reason; I want it stopped, and I have no compassion left for the children or any other unfortunate victims of this whole disaster. It's just too bad. Build the fence; shut down the illegal entries; raid the businesses employing them, and when we stumble on them, ship them out. Then, when we have reestablished our sovereignty and our control over our own borders, I will be in a mood to listen to plans for temporary workers' permits and some way to earn legal citizenship. Until then Mr. Huckabee can just go jump in a lake.

By Stephen Dinan - Groups that support a crackdown on illegal aliens haven't settled on their champion in the race for the White House, but there's little doubt which Republican scares them most — former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee.

"He was an absolute disaster on immigration as governor," said Roy Beck, president of NumbersUSA, a group that played a major role in rallying the phone calls that helped defeat this year's Senate immigration bill. "Every time there was any enforcement in his state, he took the side of the illegal aliens."

As Mr. Huckabee rises in the polls, his opponents are beginning to take shots at him on immigration. Just as problematic for the former Arkansas governor, however, is that the independent interest groups that track the issue are also giving him the once-over, and don't like what they see.

"Huckabee is the guy who scares the heck out of me," said Peter Gadiel, president of 9-11 Families for a Secure America, a group instrumental in fighting for the REAL ID Act that sets federal standards for driver's licenses.

Some leaders said Mr. Huckabee reminds them of President Bush, who pushed for legalization of illegal aliens and a new supply of foreign guest workers, despite his base calling for better border security and enforcement.

"I would say that Huckabee comes from the same perspective on the issue that George W. Bush came from — that out of a strong sense of compassion, he tries to identify with someone who comes to the United States, even if they came illegally," said Steven A. Camarota, research director for the Center for Immigration Studies.

Mr. Huckabee yesterday defended his record, but he said if voters are looking for the toughest guy, he's not their man.

"Is my answer satisfactory to all the Republicans? The answer's 'no.' " he said. "Some people want me to be a lot harsher. I think my answer is the honest and the right one."

The former governor said the borders should be secured and said he opposes sanctuary cities shielding illegal aliens and opposes amnesty, though he does think illegal aliens can be put on a path to citizenship — something many conservatives equate to amnesty.

But he said he finds a lot of anger and frustration directed at immigrants who don't speak English.

"Unfortunately, instead of being angry at the federal government for totally failing us in this, they sometimes get angry at the people themselves," he said.

He also said he's willing to take the heat for pushing for illegal alien students to be able to get taxpayer-funded financial aid and college scholarships.

"Our country is better than that, to punish children for what their parents did in breaking the law. If that costs me the election, it costs me the election, but somewhere along the line we cannot just pander to the anger and hostility without challenging it," he said.

Mr. Huckabee said he will produce a full plan to address illegal entry at some point, and he said he hasn't worked out specifics yet for who would get a path to citizenship and how.

"At some point, they do have to go back and start, they do have to pay a monetary fine, there has to be some type of restitution made for the law that has been broken, but it has to be reasonable and commensurate with the violation," he said.

As Mr. Huckabee's campaign gains attention — he is polling in first place in Iowa, the site of the first nominating contest — his immigration stance is getting a closer look. Fellow candidate Mitt Romney questioned him about his financial aid plan during Wednesday night's debate, and the video of that made the rounds of the immigration-control groups yesterday.

None of the groups has endorsed any candidates in the Democratic or Republican races, and they are divided on who the best candidate is.

On Thanksgiving, Mr. Beck wrote an e-mail to his supporters praising the immigration plan of Fred Thompson, a former senator who is running for the Republican nomination and who has called for attrition through enforcement.

"I really was blown away. I said, my gosh, this is an incredible platform," Mr. Beck said in an interview this week.

James J. Boulet Jr., executive director of English First, which wants to make English the official language of the government, said Mr. Romney had the best official record on that issue, opposing bilingual education during his term as Massachusetts governor.

Both Mr. Romney and Mr. Thompson have said they wouldn't create a new pathway to citizenship for illegal aliens, and Mr. Romney also has hinted he wants illegal aliens to go home through attrition. But Mr. Beck said Mr. Thompson's plan is the most detailed at this point, and he praised Mr. Thompson's call to even end some immigration programs such as the diversity visa lottery.

"The fact that he has OK'd these positions on such a volatile topic shows he really takes voters' concerns seriously and he believes there ought to be more than just sound bites about it," Mr. Beck said.

Reps. Ron Paul of Texas, Tom Tancredo of Colorado and Duncan Hunter of California all win near universal praise from the group leaders, but the leaders question whether any of the three have a shot at winning the nomination. Most of the leaders dismissed Arizona Sen. John McCain, a longtime advocate of legalizing illegal aliens, saying he appears to have little shot of winning the nomination.

As for Rudolph W. Giuliani, several leaders said his record as New York mayor was worrisome — he ran a sanctuary city, which means the identity of illegal aliens was kept from authorities in some cases — but they are impressed with his tough border-security position.

12 Comments:

You guys really know compassion. You should take your anger and go see a therapist about it.

Are we a Christian country? Isn't one of Christs tenants to Love thy neighbor? Does the bible say Love thy neighbor as long as they live in the good ole USA? No it doesn't. These "illegal aliens" are humans who are looking for a slice of "the good life". You guys seem to ignore that many economic studies show that these immigrants play an important role in our economy. Is you son going to wash the dishes in a restaurant for $5 per hour? Not a chance.

What would you do if you were poor and only steps from the land of "milk and honey". You would come over in a heartbeat.

Syria took on almost 2 million "illegal aliens" from Iraq after the pointless war we started. Our fault, yet they took these people in and gave them universal health care.

You guys want to turn this country into a police state looking for every immigrant, and oh yes, the bogey man too (Bin laden). Your attitude is what drags this country down from the glory it once had.

I don"t think you lost your compassion. I doubt that you ever had any. The phrase, "Compassionate conservative" has always been an oxymoron.

The fact that there are jobs for 10 to 20 million illegals in this country points to the fact that businesses need the workers. Our immigration policies since the mid 20th century have been schizophrenic. We need the workers, but we won't let them in legally, so for administration after administration we've been ignoring the immigration laws. If those policies had been in effect early in that century, your grandparents would still be in Italy and mine would still be in Ireland.

My grandparents came here legally, learned English and became proud Americans. During the depression my grandfather sold fruit and vegetables from a pushcart. I am proud of them and wish to honor their memory and their sacrifices to come here and help build the melting pot that made this country great. They honored their customs but did not try to create here the culture they sacrificed everything to escape. They also did not believe they had a right to establish a little Italy on American soil.

Every group that immigrated to the US tended initially to stay with their own compatriots, thus there were Chinatowns, Little Italies, and Polish enclaves in cities all over America. Usually by the second or at most the third generation, their descendants had been completely assimilated and ceased to be thought of as hiphenated Americans. Also, almost all immigrant groups were thought to have increased the crime problems in our cities when they first arrived. The current crop of Hispanics is no different except that many are here illegally. Since it's impossible to round up and deport 10 or 20 million people, we might as well welcome them as we did previous generations of immigrants and help them to assimilate as quickly as possible.

"except that many are here illegally" that's the whole point. You present the typical liberal approach to any problem - we can't deal with it so lets gloss it over. I don't accept that approach in any aspect of my life and not in this.

"You don't accept that approach.". So you think it's possible to deport 10 or 20 million people without seriously disrupting our economy. What have you been smoking, or is it just your ideology that makes you blind?

Why don't you read what I said instead of setting up a straw man, or are you going to pretend, as you usually do, that you don't understand? That's what liberals always do. They ignore or pretend not to understand. That's one of their debating tricks.

What straw man? I assume from your earlier statements that you propose to deport all illegal aliens in America as they are identified. If that's not your position, what do you propose to do about the illegal population?

There's no debating trick here, just a simple question.

The US position vis a vis illegal aliens is much like our position in Iraq. In the first instance, we should have spent the money necessary to enforce our border laws instead of giving lip service to those laws while ignoring the thousands entering illegally. We didn't enforce the law, and now we're stuck with the result. In the case of Iraq. we never should have invaded a sovereign nation without provocation, but we did, and now we have no easy (or any) way out.

Yes Huckabee seems to have some level of compassion....but the Conservatives see that as weakness.....something that boggles the mind. Conservatives want to criminalize people looking for a better life. They think by trying to stop services, job opportunities, and education it will somehow magically solve the problem. How ridiculous. Doing that will create 12 million people who must somehow survive, and survive they will....by ALL becoming criminals. Mr. Wilcox thinks they are all criminals already so there is no point trying to speak to him from a position of logic.

Dennis,Compassion is not weakness. But I think you mean to say conservatives want to criminalize people looking for a better life ILLEGALLY...the problem is that labels or categorizing (regardless of the validy) does not move us forward together so it serves neither side well. We all need to be able to disagree with each others policies without the nasty partisanship...that is the very thing everyone hates about Washington. Whether illegals are criminals already might well be true but as you point out ignoring reality about this issue does not make the reality go away. We need a common sense solution.

It is an important point that if we focused on the employers rather than the employees....and putting the ownus on them for hiring legally, that would solve the bulk of this problem.

About Me

Russell Wilcox is a retired college professor who spends several months in Florida and several months in Rhode Island each year, and whose interests include boating and sailing, sports, political activism, ballroom dancing and bridge. He has an MBA from Harvard, a Computer Systems CAGS from Bryant and a BS from Northeastern. He has worked in industry for EG&G and Texas Instruments, operated his own business with more than 200 employees, and served as Director of the Computer Information Systems Program for Stonehill College. An Army veteran and private pilot, he is a published author, and is the proud father of four children and the proud grandfather of seven grandchildren and one greatgrandchild. A holder of two patents in microchip connections and a true product of the melting pot, his father is the son of a Yankee farmer, and his mother the first generation daughter of Italian immigrants who retained their culture, but strove mightily to become Americans, sending four sons to fight against Hitler and Mussolini.